


The House of Death

by Skullszeyes



Category: Final Fantasy Versus XIII - Fandom, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous Relationships, Betrayal, Blood, Blood Magic, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark, Dark Magic, Darkness, Death, Developing Friendships, Enemies to Friends, Final Fantasy Versus XIII Concepts, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Magic, Magic-Users, Magical Artifacts, Magical Realism, Moral Ambiguity, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pain, Slow To Update, Swearing, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 22:08:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21088574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Noctis's father is dead, the kingdom has fallen, the ring is gone, and he's forced to flee, and yet he is unaware of the darkness growing inside of him, one that was created before he was born, through many of his new and old connections coming to life to meet its end.**Haitus**





	The House of Death

_ Once upon a time, _

_ there lived a Sovereign ruling a glorious Kingdom, _ _until the birth of his son, _

_the prince and heir to the throne, _ _changed the fate of the world. _

* * *

The Crown City, Insomnia, was surrounded by a wall that shattered completely into thousands of glinting shards. The sky victimized of flames ever rising, and yet even the moon darkened behind a group of grey knotted clouds. It was an uproar, a chaos that bloomed forth and splintered metal and concrete. 

Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum sprinted down the long wide corridor, his heart racing at the sight of many Glaives fighting amongst MT’s and Niflheim soldiers. Bodies lay on the marble black floor, their blood barely a color and more of a dark puddle. It was a shock burning in his veins, yet he also felt that it wasn’t exactly surprising that everything had gone to shit. He told the King this would happen, but his father never listened. 

Gritting his teeth, he came upon a group of Glaives lying motionless on the ground, they were covered in holes where the blood excreted from, their faces a mix of fear and surprise. 

Noctis manifested one of his swords to his hand, lighter than the rest, and easy to handle as he kept close to the wall, listening for any other notable sounds. The echoes of feet and metal clashing together, while groans and screams occupied the noise. To his credit, a few soldiers appeared, and he didn’t waste time in cutting them down. The MT’s were more trouble than the normal soldiers, but he was able to get through them, leaving their scattered remains on the wax floor, glinting off the light from the window.

Noctis sprinted down the left corridor and slowed his pace before coming to a stop at the corner of the hall. Listening to anymore sounds before moving again. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t found out. Not until he located his father, or anymore living Glaives.

He wasn’t even allowed inside the signing room. His dad gave him a stern look and told him to watch from another room. Which he had done, and mostly secured the Glaives. He was one of the last to learn about Lunafreya’s abduction, it had surprised him, and before he could meet with her when he spoke to a Glaive who had her, the citadel began to rumble, and the MT’s had filled the halls, slaughtering everyone in sight. 

She was safe, but right now, he had to make sure his father was okay and evacuated. He climbed the flight of steps and tried his hardest to ignore the blood and bodies, including the cracks within the walls. It was frustrating. 

Noctis stopped in the middle of the steps, glanced up, and swung his sword up before he warping several flights of stairs. He grasped for the railing and pulled himself over before reached for the handle to the door that led into the main hall. He had a strong sense to go after the crystal. To make sure that it was safe now that he knew Niflheim had come to Lucis for a peace treaty, but to take over Insomnia, to take the remaining crystal.

“Noctis!” 

He twisted around and caught sight of both Ignis and Gladiolus. Both wearing simple black jackets with silver buttons. They had sweat on their faces that was mixed with blood from whatever battle they had gone through to find him.

“Where’s my father?” Noctis demanded. 

Ignis was tall with short dirty blond hair that was swept back by jell. The sweat had made the tips of his strands look damp as he wiped a bit from the side of his face. “We’re ordered to take you out of Insomnia—”

“No,” Noctis said, clenching his hands, “I’m not leaving until I learn that my father is okay. I have to find him!”

“We got the orders from your father,” said Gladiolus. He was also tall, while his body was toned, and underneath the coat was a large tattoo. His black hair was pulled back from his face, strong features that were softened by his blue eyes.

“He wouldn’t have said that,” Noctis told them, but a part of him knew that it was true. His father would’ve ordered Noctis to leave Insomnia in case there was an invasion, and this was it. It was difficult to think of the possibility that everything had fallen around them.

He looked back to his friends and stared at their faces, the expression that they were pressed for time, but they were waiting for Noctis to figure things out, to realize that what is happening is actually happening. 

“Where are we going?” he asked, letting Ignia guide him down the hallway toward the staircase. 

“First, we leave Insomnia,” Ignis said as they descended the steps and he pressed on Noctis’s arm while Gladiolus looked around the corner before signaling that everything was clear for them to go. “And then we get into contact with Cor Leonis.”

“And Lunafreya?” Noctis asked, crossing the hall toward a room where Gladiolus opened a door for them, and Ignis made sure he was passed the threshold before the door was closed behind them. 

“The King didn’t trust some of the Glaive’s,” Ignis said. They were inside an office room, nothing too interesting, same marble floors, walls, the windows were closed, and the desk was clean and precise of papers, folders, and pens. Ignis pressed against a panel and part of the wall opened up, he waved to Noctis, and Gladiolus made sure the prince made it through before Ignis closed it behind them. 

“What does that have to do with Lunafreya?” Noctis asked in the darkness. He felt Gladiolus’ hand on his shoulder, while Ignis sparked a flame in the palm of his hand. The secret passage wasn’t anything new to Noctis. He spent years figuring out where most of them were, but like all he had located, they were cramped as this passage.

“Only a select few were trusted, the others were deemed expendable,” Gladiolus answered.

Noctis blinked, heart racing as he followed Ignis, their steps were even, one after the other, shoulders barely bumping against the cold walls that smelled strong of dust while a battle stretched on. 

“What do you mean?” Noctis asked. “How would he know? When did he do this?”

“We only learned not too long ago,” Ignis said, voice low. “A Glaive named Crowe told us about this before she left after a small group headed after Lunafreya. This was during the signing. The King knew this, and made sure that we were ready to find you and escort you out of the city once the barrier was broken.”

His chest tightened by Ignis’s explanation, and the cramped passage became too much for him to understand. It was too much, he was unsure of what was happening, and why it was happening in the first place. And yet, Noctis was placed in the dark, kept there until now. 

“Why?” Noctis asked, trembling with both shock and confusion, “why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“In case you were taken hostage,” Gladiolus said, “like Lunafreya, you could’ve been taken hostage. The King wasn’t sure and had the entire thing planned out. It was also the reason why Ignis and I didn’t have the proper information until it was time. In case we were also kidnapped, interrogated, or killed.”

“Except everything fell apart anyways,” Noctis said, wary of his voice rising, fingers clenched in front of him, his nails dug into his skin, yet it didn’t help his anxiety. “The Wall fell, Lunafreya is gone, I have no idea what happened to my dad, and now...now we’re leaving?” 

“We have to get you out of here, Noct,” Ignis said, coming to the end of the passage and pressing his hand against it. The wall slid open and they were in another section of the Citadel, close to the stairs that led to the parking lot underneath the building. They’d be able to leave right on time if they took one of the cars. No one will notice until he was gone. 

Noctis looked toward the stairs while Gladiolus closed the door. “I can’t leave.”

“You have too,” Ignis said, closing his hand on the fire. “We have to get you out of Insomnia before Niflheim kidnaps you and—”

No. This was wrong. They shouldn’t be leaving, not without the Crystal, not without his father. He needed to find him, he needed to save it. It was a desire that prodded within him, burning and burning that helped him ignore his friend’s pleas as he ran up the stairs, past the pools of blood, past the bodies, and the ringing in his ears.

He wasn’t sure what it was but he felt something strange, a gut wrenching pain soaking the walls and floors, and it was difficult to walk, to run, and like a dream he had many times over, he tried with every fiber of his being to push himself further. 

He needed to find his father.

Noctis threw his sword, warping farther into the halls, almost slamming into the walls, and the pressure slowly eased and he was able to run, and he slashed at enemies close by, he killed the MT’s, the soldiers from Niflheim, and as he grew closer and closer to his father’s room, the one that led to a secret compartment is when he knew what it was that was making him nauseous. 

He pushed open the door, and the words froze in his throat, his heart raced, the only thing he could hear besides the soft breath heaving out from a bloody mouth. Noctis shuddered, his legs almost buckled if he hadn’t pushed himself to stand, to walk, to take the simplest steps toward his dying father. 

And then he fell to his knees beside him, tears already slipping down his face, his hands reaching, uncertain of what he had found, if this was what he was meant to find in everything that happened. In the world shattering around him, in the loss of his own kingdom, and now his father. 

“Find...the Crystal…” Regis, King of Lucis, whispered. “Take...it...back.”

Noctis stared at his father through his tear stained eyes, and he couldn’t hold back the devastating cry once his father’s last breath exhaled from his mouth, damp with blood, from tears, from the last words he hoped Noctis could fulfill.

Noctis leaned his head down upon his father’s chest, fingers tightening on his coat, and all he could hear was his cries. He had to go after the Crystal. He had to find it before anyone else does, and make sure Niflheim doesn’t get to it. 

He whispered a farewell to his father and sprinted away, heart pounding with regret. The Crystal was close by, at the top of the tower, in a secure room. He knew that Niflheim was bound to figure out how to get inside it, to take the last remaining Crystal that still had energy inside of it. 

Noctis ran as fast as he could, the cold wind blowing against him as he skidded around the corner, and felt another pressure, something less than his father’s, and more familiar, a sinking pain that made him realize who had killed the King. 

“The King is dead.” He knew the voice, the simplicity of memory returning to Noctis. “What a day to be alive.”

He ignored the dried blood on his fingertips as he walked toward the center hall where the doors to the Crystal was left wide open. And the only other person within the room was covered in a white robe. Their hand was raised toward the crystal, harnessing its power as it was sealed within a secure chamber.

He turned away from the crystal, the power within leaking out at the force he was putting on it. And reached up to the hood and pulled it down where blonde hair past his shoulders, and his eyes barely covered by blonde bags, his skin was gaunt, sunken, yet there was a rigidness about him, lean in his figure, power at his fingertips, in the stance as he raised his hand toward Noctis while Noctis summoned his broad sword to his hand. 

“Rumors said you were blind,” Noctis said, surrounded by circular magic restraints, at the same time, Lunafreya’s older brother, Ravus had swords of different sizes and shapes pointed directly at him. If they hadn’t put up enough barriers to block all of the simultaneous attacks, the floor wouldn’t probably be there, nor their bodies.

“Blind,” Ravus scoffed, looking toward the walls, speaking in a smooth, lucid voice, “to them, to you, I can’t be, but what everyone else thinks doesn’t concern me, nor should you.” He turned away from Noctis and raised his hand, ignoring the armiger weapons surrounding him. 

“That crystal doesn’t belong to Niflheim.”

“It does,” Ravus said simply. “You lost the war, Prince Noctis, everything in this country now belongs to the empire.”

Noctis felt rigid in his stance, as if he couldn’t move. “Like you?” he asked, “and your sister, Lunafreya. You two belong to the empire after your Kingdom fell! How does it make sense that it happens to me, to my father, who you killed!” His voice was ragged, strained, his eyes burning yet had no tears to express the deep sorrow and loss he felt within. 

Ravus stilled before looking over his shoulder, and his milky gaze, empty of emotion seemed almost perplexed and unsettled. “I didn’t kill King Regis.” He turned back toward the crystal. “He was dying when I got here. I said my words, hoping in some way that your father will burn alongside the rest of your ancestors, but I see you got to him before he could. A shame really.” 

Noctis fought against Ravus’s strange magic. He didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t like he was able to fight against an Oracle’s power. It only belonged to Tenebrae, not to Lucis, and it was as unfamiliar to him as what Ravus was now doing to the crystal. The chamber was shattering, the energy leaking out in thick mist around Ravus’s white cloak, not a single fabric was touched, but Noctis could feel the instability of what he was doing.

“Don’t, you can’t, it doesn’t belong to you!”

“I know,” Ravus said, his voice sounding louder as more energy pooled around Noctis’s feet. “I couldn’t find the Ring of the Lucii anywhere, and since my own sister is nowhere to be found, I’m thinking Regis must’ve gave it to her.”

Lunafreya has the ring, the Ring of the Lucii.

Noctis fought against Ravus’s magical barrier, and pushed hard against it, at the same time, Ravus shattered the rest of the barrier that surrounded the crystal, and he almost stumbled back if it wasn’t for Ignis and Gladiolus.

“Prince Noctis,” Ignis said, “is this really what your father would want after everything he has done for you?”

“Not the time for a lecture,” Noctis said, and when he looked back, the chamber was open, and Ravus was no longer in front of it. Where did he go? “I have to get the crystal.”

A powerful wave of energy came from the crystal, and Noctis recognized it as Ravus’s. It was a strange fluctuation that shattered the glass around them, and to Noctis’s panic, thrown them through the windows and out the front part of the citadel that was empty of people. He summoned one of his blades and warped to a safe place on the ground, almost toppling over if it wasn’t for Gladiolus who shook his head at him. 

A little disappointed, but Noctis was happy to see they were okay. 

He stared up at the building, and the fear and regret was once again sinking in, this time it was wrapped up with rage for Ravus who only mocked his father’s death, the take over of his kingdom, and now sent Noctis and his friend’s out of the building like pests. Probably hoping they’d die. 

“I have to get the crystal,” he muttered, mostly to himself. 

“Noctis,” Gladiolus grabbed his arm, and forced him to look him in the eyes, “Niflheim has taken over the kingdom, the King is dead, the Ring of the Lucii if you hadn’t forgotten is the item that gives you full right to the throne is now missing.”

The panic he felt earlier was settling in again, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. He didn’t want to accept everything that has happened to be the truth. Not Niflheim betraying them, not his father’s death, Lunafreya taking the ring, and Ravus controlling the crystal. 

His Kingdom has fallen, and he has no idea what to do.

“Let’s go,” Ignis said, leading Noctis away from the citadel while Gladiolus cleared the path. “We have a car down the block, we’ll head to the rendezvous point, and find out more information from Cor.”

Noctis nodded, too numb to think, to feel, to wrap his emotions up of how helpless he was to the attack. If only he knew, if only he had more power to protect his kingdom. 


End file.
